Money is a touchy subject.
Throwing that notion out like a drunken midnight Amazon purchase of a pink blow-up unicorn costume that seemed like the greatest idea of all time… don’t ask.
It’s touchy because we associate emotion and feeling to a wrinkly green piece of paper. And for those who Venmo, it’s a trusted number that sits within a ledger. The value of any money that has ever existed, is trust.
You trust your dollar can purchase you something from somebody else. It’s a belief that we all believe in to make work. And believe me or not, the first US George Washington Dollar as we know it, was printed in 1914. A century in the books, Washington and Benjamin are as young as ever. Money that we know today, has not been around for very long.
And if you’re wondering what did we use before 1914? We utilized ‘greenbacks’ and ‘demand notes’ throughout the 1800’s. These could be instantly traded for gold or silver at specific banks when our currency was backed by hard precious metals. In 1973 we removed ourselves from the gold standard and transitioned into something called Fiat currency.
Courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank Of San Francisco
So Lam, what are you trying to get at with this ancient history lesson about the dollar?
The invention of paper currency is old. Like the rotary telephone. It does the job, you’ll get to speak to someone after your fingers get arthritis punching in all your friends forgotten numbers. But now, we have smartphones. Physical paper money was great when we dealt in durable, physical goods.
But today, of all the transactions at your practice, how many are made in physical cash? I’d bet my dollar it wasn’t that many. Your petty cash drawer looks quite petty… terrible pun intended.
The invention of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology will be one of the greatest inventions in human history. Don’t roll your eyes just yet, this isn’t hyperbole. I’m completely serious. And in this ‘Thrive’ I’ll refer to any cryptocurrencies as ‘programmable money’.
Whether you decide it’s the Digital Dollar, Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin or Prickly Pineapple Blockchain Cash I want to inform you that we are on the verge of the next revolutionary technology after the internet.
Programmable money will be as ubiquitous and a part of our lives as email and the internet.
So what will be the deal in dental practices and dentistry?
Do you constantly get asked if you can do a payment plan? I sureeee do.
You can create a smart contract with certain digital currencies. This becomes a digital contract that is trustless. And don’t scoff at the word ‘trustless’. It means that you do not need a third party to verify and ensure the contract is held by all parties. AKA no need for CareCredit or any external high interest party creditors and no blood sucking lawyers.
In a smart contract, once signed, it removes the funds from the debtor automatically as stated by the terms. And if the account is empty, null or void, your contract may commit the debtor to any digital collateral items the person has to put in as good faith. So say goodbye to your collections list. Say goodbye to having one of your staff members chase down unpaid 30,60 and 90 day balances. Gone are the reports.
Dental Partnerships and Practices will become tokenized. Something called an Oracle will audit the production number. Automatically distributing funds appropriately to all the working partners. Say if anyone leaves or sells, the smart contract is pre-programmed to a decentralized system to invite the new buyer or partner. The terms become the terms. There is no mis-interpretation in execution of a contract. Smart contracts also mean you can consider fractional shares to staff or others to get them skin in the game and feel more committed to your grand vision.
Payroll is gone. Again, preprogrammed into a trustless system. All your staff will want to get any clerical errors rectified immediately and will be less nonchalant in the way charge outs are created for patients, lest they don’t want to be paid appropriately.
Buying the land your practice sits on? Cut out the real estate agents, lawyers, bankers and title agencies. It can be done completely through a tokenized property and smart contracts.
If you really think about what any lawyer does, they are terrible intermediaries to interpreting and executing contracts. They’re expensive and are not calibrated. There is absolutely no consistency between lawyers either when drafting, committing and executing contracts. Two different lawyers reading the same contract will wind up with two completely different verdicts.
To me, the system is full of waste, redundancy and inconvenience. Embrace the next evolution. Cryptocurrency and programmable money will thrive.
Lam